Design, Characterization, and Liftoff of an Insect-Scale Soft Robotic Dragonfly Powered by Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
Dragonflies are agile and efficient flyers that use two pairs of wings for demonstrating exquisite aerial maneuvers. Compared to two-winged insects such as bees or flies, dragonflies leverage forewing and hindwing interactions for achieving higher efficiency and net lift. Here we develop the first a...
| Główni autorzy: | , , , |
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| Format: | Artykuł |
| Język: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-07-01
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| Seria: | Micromachines |
| Hasła przedmiotowe: | |
| Dostęp online: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/13/7/1136 |
| _version_ | 1827618795875729408 |
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| author | Yufeng Chen Cathleen Arase Zhijian Ren Pakpong Chirarattananon |
| author_facet | Yufeng Chen Cathleen Arase Zhijian Ren Pakpong Chirarattananon |
| author_sort | Yufeng Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Dragonflies are agile and efficient flyers that use two pairs of wings for demonstrating exquisite aerial maneuvers. Compared to two-winged insects such as bees or flies, dragonflies leverage forewing and hindwing interactions for achieving higher efficiency and net lift. Here we develop the first at-scale dragonfly-like robot and investigate the influence of flapping-wing kinematics on net lift force production. Our 317 mg robot is driven by two independent dielectric elastomer actuators that flap four wings at 350 Hz. We extract the robot flapping-wing kinematics using a high-speed camera, and further measure the robot lift forces at different operating frequencies, voltage amplitudes, and phases between the forewings and hindwings. Our robot achieves a maximum lift-to-weight ratio of 1.49, and its net lift force increases by 19% when the forewings and hindwings flap in-phase compared to out-of-phase flapping. These at-scale experiments demonstrate that forewing–hindwing interaction can significantly influence lift force production and aerodynamic efficiency of flapping-wing robots with passive wing pitch designs. Our results could further enable future experiments to achieve feedback-controlled flights. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T10:15:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6b16f8c144134816a84f78546fbd1c77 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-666X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T10:15:26Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Micromachines |
| spelling | doaj.art-6b16f8c144134816a84f78546fbd1c772023-12-01T22:27:51ZengMDPI AGMicromachines2072-666X2022-07-01137113610.3390/mi13071136Design, Characterization, and Liftoff of an Insect-Scale Soft Robotic Dragonfly Powered by Dielectric Elastomer ActuatorsYufeng Chen0Cathleen Arase1Zhijian Ren2Pakpong Chirarattananon3Research Laboratory of Electronics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USAResearch Laboratory of Electronics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USAResearch Laboratory of Electronics, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USADepartment of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ChinaDragonflies are agile and efficient flyers that use two pairs of wings for demonstrating exquisite aerial maneuvers. Compared to two-winged insects such as bees or flies, dragonflies leverage forewing and hindwing interactions for achieving higher efficiency and net lift. Here we develop the first at-scale dragonfly-like robot and investigate the influence of flapping-wing kinematics on net lift force production. Our 317 mg robot is driven by two independent dielectric elastomer actuators that flap four wings at 350 Hz. We extract the robot flapping-wing kinematics using a high-speed camera, and further measure the robot lift forces at different operating frequencies, voltage amplitudes, and phases between the forewings and hindwings. Our robot achieves a maximum lift-to-weight ratio of 1.49, and its net lift force increases by 19% when the forewings and hindwings flap in-phase compared to out-of-phase flapping. These at-scale experiments demonstrate that forewing–hindwing interaction can significantly influence lift force production and aerodynamic efficiency of flapping-wing robots with passive wing pitch designs. Our results could further enable future experiments to achieve feedback-controlled flights.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/13/7/1136biologically inspired robotsoft robotdielectric elastomer actuatorflapping-wingmicro-aerial-vehicle |
| spellingShingle | Yufeng Chen Cathleen Arase Zhijian Ren Pakpong Chirarattananon Design, Characterization, and Liftoff of an Insect-Scale Soft Robotic Dragonfly Powered by Dielectric Elastomer Actuators Micromachines biologically inspired robot soft robot dielectric elastomer actuator flapping-wing micro-aerial-vehicle |
| title | Design, Characterization, and Liftoff of an Insect-Scale Soft Robotic Dragonfly Powered by Dielectric Elastomer Actuators |
| title_full | Design, Characterization, and Liftoff of an Insect-Scale Soft Robotic Dragonfly Powered by Dielectric Elastomer Actuators |
| title_fullStr | Design, Characterization, and Liftoff of an Insect-Scale Soft Robotic Dragonfly Powered by Dielectric Elastomer Actuators |
| title_full_unstemmed | Design, Characterization, and Liftoff of an Insect-Scale Soft Robotic Dragonfly Powered by Dielectric Elastomer Actuators |
| title_short | Design, Characterization, and Liftoff of an Insect-Scale Soft Robotic Dragonfly Powered by Dielectric Elastomer Actuators |
| title_sort | design characterization and liftoff of an insect scale soft robotic dragonfly powered by dielectric elastomer actuators |
| topic | biologically inspired robot soft robot dielectric elastomer actuator flapping-wing micro-aerial-vehicle |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/13/7/1136 |
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